Vegan Eggnog Muffins wtih Boozy Raisins

Todays special treat was these eggnog muffins with boozy raisins. These were something hubby saw in my current favorite baking cookbook and decided he really wanted me to make them so today I made a test batch and if we like them then I will be making more for the Festivus party we are going to Thursday night. I know they are a bit too traditional holiday to normally bring to a Festivus party, but hey they do have rum in them so considering this Festivus party is really pretty much all about booze and video games I think I am fine with these muffins.

This recipe is from page 67 of Kris Holechek's The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes: Amazing cookies, cakes, muffins, pies, brownies and breads.

Vegan Pumpkin cookies with Vegan cream cheese frosting

This is not the first time I have made these cookies, but this is the first time I have made this frosting and frosted these cookies. These cookies are nice and moist and rather tasty, but let me just say that this cream cheese frosting is incredible and really makes these cookies irresistible. I know this will become one of my go to cookies cause these are so amazing with this cream cheese frosting.

The cookie recipe is from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes by Kris Holechek and the frosting recipe was veganized by me from a recipe I found at Cooks.com

Vegan Pumpkin cookies and Pumpkin chocolate chip jack-o-lantern cookies

We have a party to go to on Halloween and there is a pot luck at the end so of course I had to figure out something to bring just in case we stay for the pot luck. Cookies seemed like a good safe option, especially since desserts are usually the hardest thing for me at parties. Almost all desserts have dairy in them so I usually try to bring a dessert so that I am safe.

I was thinking about making either chocolate chip cookies or peanut butter cookies and then I cam across a recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and thought for Halloween that seemed pretty appropriate. I forgot to mix the chocolate chips into the mix before putting the cookies on the sheets for baking so I ended up making half with chocolate chips and half without, thus the attempt at jack-o-lanterns for the cookies with chocolate chips. Hopefully the cookies will be a big hit at the party.

Vegan chocolate chip cookies with pecans

Tonight I had a bit of a craving for cookies so I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies. They always seem to make everything better. Maybe it is that they make you think of childhood when times were simpler and a cookie really could make all your problems melt away. For me even the act of making them seems to put everything in perspective. I guess for me baking is a kind of zen like activity and when I am done there is something delicious to share with others.

My husband absolutely loved these cookies. He said they were the best chocolate chip cookies he has had in a long time, longer than he can remember. This recipe was from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes: Amazing Cookies, Cakes, Muffins, Pies, Brownies and Breads by Kris Holechek which is my favorite vegan baking book and one of my favorite baking books period. I highly recommend this for anyone, vegan or not. I bought it because I have severe dairy issues and I am very glad that I did buy this book because the recipes are so good my husband doesn't request recipes outside of this book because he loves these so much.

French Toast Muffins

Yesterday we had our parent teacher conference at our son's school. Our son's lead teacher told me to feel free to bring coffee and such to eat while we met as it was a morning meeting. Since I love to bake I figured I would take this opportunity to try out a new muffin recipe I had been eying for a few weeks now. French toast muffins. What an interesting idea to make french toast in the form of a muffin, how could I resist but give this a try. I must say they were not too difficult to make and were quite tasty and when they were baking my whole kitchen smelled like french toast, that yummy smell of cinnamon and maple syrup. This is one recipe I will definitely be repeating. Thanks must be given to Kris Holechek and "The 100 best vegan baking recipes: amazing cookies, cakes, muffins, pies, brownies and breads." This has quickly become my favorite cookbook. Everything turns out really great and tasty and no one ever knows the goodies are vegan unless I tell them.

Cookies and Cream Cupcakes

These are a variation on a recipe in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes by Kris Holenchek. The recipe in the cookbook called for green and blue food colorings to make the cupcakes look like Earth, but by omitting the food coloring I have cookies and cream cupcakes.



I frosted these with a buttercream frosting (from the same cookbook) and mixed crushed cookie pieces into the frosting so that I had a cookies and cream frosting for the cupcakes. The first time I made these cupcakes I made the buttercream frosting, frosted the cupcakes and then dipped them in crushed cookie pieces. The cookie pieces didn't adhere too well to the frosting by applying them to the frosting, but mixing them into the frosting really did the trick.

Lemon Almond Bling Muffins

I have made these muffins before and one of our friends really loves these, she said these are the best muffins she has ever had. I tried this recipe when I was in the process of majorly trimming back my lemon tree, I baked and cooked all kinds of things with lemon. I also made lots of lemonade and lemon soda at that point in time. Now that the lemon tree is healthier and isn't quite so full of lemons I can use them at a more sane pace, but I still love these muffins and a few other recipes I found during that lemon period. This recipe is in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes book on page 66. Seriously I know it seems like I only make things out of this book, honestly I don't, but it is an excellent book. I love this book very much and recommend it to all my friends who are looking for vegan baking recipes, this has definitely become one of my favorite cookbooks.

Raspberry Lime Muffins

I know for a 3 year old's birthday party you need to have lots of cupcakes and of course I will, 4 dozen cupcakes. But then I thought what about something a little less sweet for those who maybe find cupcakes to be too sweet or for those who might be watching their weight and so I decided to make 2 kinds of muffins as well. I saw the recipe for Raspberry Lime Muffins in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes (page 68) and thought that these would be a nice alternative to a cupcake with frosting, something a little sweet with the raspberries but not overly sweet and no frosting necessary. I can hardly wait to try these at the party, I'm even kind of hoping they don't all get eaten so I can have some for breakfast next week. I guess if they all get eaten though that would be a good thing, it would show people enjoyed them. I guess either way I'll be happy.

Banana Split Cupcakes

I found this recipe in The 100 Best VEGAN BAKING Recipes by Kris Holenchek (page 98) and they sounded so amazing that I couldn't help but try the recipe out for my son's birthday. After all they sounded like something a crowd of toddlers would love. I have had amazing will power to resist eating one myself yet (I admit I did taste the batter as did my little helper) but I did give one of the cupcakes (unfrosted) to one of my son's teachers the other day to say thank you for an amazing act of kindness on her part. She loved it, she said she was expecting blueberries and then realized there were chocolate chips in it and was very pleasantly surprised.


I am planning to frost these cupcakes with Fudgy Frosting (page 157) and then sprinkle them with some chopped up salted peanuts and top each one with a stemmed maraschino cherry. Of course another fun option would have been to use Buttercream Frosting (page 157) and then drizzle some chocolate syrup on top and then sprinkle on the peanuts and top with the cherries. Anyhow, I am really excited to have such fun Vegan cupcakes to serve for this birthday party. Especially since my son has 2 friends who can't eat dairy. It makes me feel good to know that I can provide a yummy birthday spread that all the kids can enjoy. I'll try to remember to take pictures of all the cupcakes when they are frosted.

Make your own pita chips

This week I am preparing for my son's 3rd birthday party. Among other things, that means lots of baking. This year I am making 2 kinds of Vegan cupcakes and 2 kinds of Vegan muffins as well as some pita chips and "egg" salad sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches. Of course the cupcakes won't get frosted till the day before the party so you'll have to wait to see them all frosted.

I started off by making lots of pita chips. I bought 4 bags of whole wheat pita chips. Then I cut them up into chip sized pieces. I used a bread knife to do this and simply cut each piece of pita into 4 strips lengthwise and then cut the strips into smaller pieces and ripped the edges where the front and back meet so that I have thin chips. Once all that is done I line them up on cookie sheets and spray them with a little olive oil and then sprinkle them with a little bit of salt. Once all of that is done put them in the oven at about 350 degrees until they are as crispy as you want them. If you are baking 2 sheets at once I suggest rotating the sheets about half way through so that both sheets get baked about the same. I will admit it takes a while if you make as many at once as I do, but I really think they taste so much better than the store bought ones which tend to taste greasy to me.